Economic Democracy Research Papers

This article seeks to describe the results of the research with the topic of developing a model of governance of natural resources at the level of the rural communities involving community participation, both in terms of production,... more

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- by Puthut Indroyono and +2
  Hempri Suyatna
  Rindu Firdaus
- •
- Economic Democracy

This paper collects together quotations and extracts from 19th and 20th century thinkers who were littleknown for being supporters of workplace democracy.

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- by Tej Gonza and +1
  David P Ellerman
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- 5
  Intellectual History, Economic Sociology, Economics, Economic Democracy

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- by Awan Santosa
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- Economic Democracy

Is social justice possible within capitalist societies? Or should progressives and egalitarians be looking for viable alternatives to free-market capitalism? John Rawls, one of the most influential political philosophers of the last... more

Martin O'Neill talks to Matthew Brown about community wealth-building and alternative economic strategies in Preston.

This paper explores a new strategy to address the problem of “gig-workers” in labor-based platform companies. The two current strategies are (1) regulations (e.g., requiring platforms to recognized workers as employees) or (2) creating... more

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- by Tej Gonza and +1
  David P Ellerman
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- 8
  Cooperatives, Economic Democracy, Digital Platforms, ESOPs

This paper argues that, in order to justify democracy as the most appropriate norm in the workplace, we should construe this norm in ways that reflect what is specific and unique to the workplace as a social institution. To do this, we... more

The paper aims to bridge divides between political theory and management and organization studies in theorizing workplace democracy. To achieve this aim, the paper begins by introducing a new definition of democracy which, it is... more

Employee share ownership in SMEs is microscopic in Europe while it is widespread in the USA. This difference is due to the implementation of a particular employee share plan in 1974 in the USA, the ESOP. It is still almost unknown in... more

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- by Tej Gonza and +1
  David P Ellerman
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- 6
  Economic Democracy, Employee Ownership, Succession Planning, Employee Stock Ownership Plans

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis an important conceptual battleground for democratic theorists ought to be, it would seem, the capitalist firm. We are now painfully aware that the typical model of government in so-called... more

The radical ‘Meidner Plan’ for wage-earner funds in Sweden in the mid-seventies was one of the most promising roads not taken by the European left in the second half of the twentieth century. Had it been implemented in full, it could have... more

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- by Joe Guinan
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- 9
  Economics, Capitalism, Participatory Democracy, Socialism

V príspevku sú priblížené základné črty a výhody zamestnaneckej participácie, ako jednej z možných foriem riadenia podniku. Zároveň je táto forma podrobená kritickej analýze, s poukázaním na potenciálne riziká a inherentné
nedostatky.

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- by Marián Sekerák
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- 2
  Economic Democracy, Employee Participation

This research aims to generate anincubator model of green entrepreneurship that enables rural communities to improve their welfare by utilizing their local resources, by involving the society participation as much as possible and by that... more

This research aims to generate anincubator model of green entrepreneurship that enables rural communities to improve their welfare by utilizing their local resources, by involving the society participation as much as possible and by that of ways that enables rural communities to preserve the environment. This research was conducted by using Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods, where the research team worked together with on-site partner institutions in doing the identification process and diagnosing the problems, and that of developing the model and plans of action, that of intervening and evaluating and as well as doing self-reflective thinking, and that of re-conducting the initial process on the ground of the latest achieved stage. The result showed that the incubator model of green entrepreneurship based on society-economy consisted of three dimensions: the dimension of green entrepreneurs, green institutions, and green business. Green entrepreneur dimension required green knowledge incubation through the implementation of Green Schools that contains the green curriculum design, classroom, lab, teachers and cadres. Green institution dimension required intervention for the incubation of local wisdom, local organizations, and networks. Green business dimension required intervention in the incubation of assets / land, production technology, costing, website (IT), marketing, bookkeeping, and waste management. Abstrak Riset ini bertujuan untuk menghasilkan model inkubator kewirausahaan hijau yang dapat meningkatkan taraf kesejahteraan masyarakat desa melalui pemanfaatan potensi sumber daya lokal, dengan melibatkan sebesar-besar peranserta masyarakat dan cara-cara yang dapat memelihara kelestarian lingkungan. Metode penelitian menggunakan metode Participatory Action Reserach (PAR), di mana tim peneliti bersama dengan lembaga mitra di lokasi riset melakukan proses identifikasi dan diagnosis permasalahan, menyusun model dan rencana aksi, melakukan intervensi, evaluasi dan refleksi bersama, serta kembali melakukan proses awal dengan tahap yang sudah maju dari sebelumnya. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa model inkubator kewirausahaan hijau berbasis ekonomi kerakyatan meliputi tiga dimensi, yaitu dimensi wirausaha hijau, kelembagaan hijau, dan bisnis hijau. Dimensi wirausaha hijau memerlukan inkubasi pengetahuan hijau melalui penyelenggaraan Sekolah Hijau yang memuat desain kurikulum, kelas, praktikum, guru, dan kader hijau. Dimensi kelembagaan hijau memerlukan intervensi untuk inkubasi kearifan lokal, organisasi lokal, dan jejaring. Dimensi bisnis hijau memerlukan intervensi dalam inkubasi pengelolaan aset/lahan, teknologi produksi, pembiayaan, website (TI), pemasaran, pembukuan, dan tata kelola sampah. Kata Kunci: inkubator; kewirausahaan hijau; ekonomi kerakyatan A. Pendahuluan Pertumbuhan kapitalisme di dunia tidak saja mendorong pertumbuhan ekonomi yang cukup pesat akan tetapi juga telah menyebabkan ketimpangan antara kaya dan miskin semakin melebar. Mengacu data dari Oxfam, 80 individu terkaya di dunia memiliki kekayaan setara dengan 3,5 milyar penduduk miskin di dunia (Hall, Tandon, Tremblay (ed) 2016 : 5). Di Indonesia, dalam kurun waktu 10 tahun terakhir, pertumbuhan ekonomi Indonesia juga meningkat dengan pesat. Pada tahun2014,

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- by Istianto Ari Wibowo and +1
  Suwartanti Nayono
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- 3
  Environmental Sustainability, Cooperatives, Economic Democracy

Corporate globalization and the post-2008 world recession have placed new strains on co-operatives. External challenges have also exacerbated a long-standing structural crisis, deeply rooted within maturing co-operative movement-sectors:... more

Corporate globalization and the post-2008 world recession have placed new strains on co-operatives. External challenges have also exacerbated a long-standing structural crisis, deeply rooted within maturing co-operative movement-sectors: the problem of movement degeneration. These pressures have accelerated degeneration and thus prevented some mature movements from capitalizing on new opportunities. This retreat into a siege co-operativism poses a significant challenge to the expansive aims of the International Co-operative Alliance’s Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade. These include making co-operation the world’s fastest growing business model by 2020.

Building on a recent comparative study of the Canadian provinces of Québec and Saskatchewan, this paper highlights findings of international significance. It examines maturing co-operatives’ systemic tendency to drift from movement goals and a co-operative, community development approach toward an increasingly exclusive, market-driven, firm-focus. It argues degeneration is not merely a self-contained problem for individual co-operatives; that degeneration also has field effects; that ‘degeneration contagion’ tends to spread across movement-sectors; and that this can place powerful drag on new development. This process of cultural demutualization from within may also drive formal demutualizations, sector contraction and the erosion of the co-operative movement’s historical bloc—the social base for its long-range expansion and renewal.

Globalization era findings from Saskatchewan, where privatizations decimated the agrarian co-operative base, illustrate how stealth degeneration may threaten movement objectives—subtly, slowly and even imperceptibly. An outlier of extreme movement degeneration in recent decades, the difficulties of the legendary Saskatchewan case provide a cautionary tale. However, it is also argued that ‘degeneration drag’ can be overcome through concerted movement regeneration strategies. Québec, where the number of co-operatives doubled in twenty years, serves as an exemplar of alternative possibility. These diverging paths represent a central paradox of globalization era co-operation in Canada. They also provide an instructive parable for a world movement at a crossroad.

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- by Mitch Diamantopoulos
- •
- 9
  Globalization, Social Economy, Cooperatives, Quebec

This article examines the bitcoin, at present the most popular cryptocurrency. The bitcoin grew on the major pillars of the neoliberal market economy, such as liberalization, deregulation and privatization. But in the end, it turned out... more

Since the end of the American Civil War, scholars have debated the efficacy of various models of community economic development, or CED. Historically, this debate has tracked one of two approaches: place-based models of CED, seeking to... more

Since the end of the American Civil War, scholars have debated the efficacy of various models of community economic development, or CED. Historically, this debate has tracked one of two approaches: place-based models of CED, seeking to stimulate community development through market-driven economic growth programs, and people-based models of CED, focused on the removal of structural barriers to social and economic mobility that prevent human flourishing. More recently, scholars and policymakers have turned to a third model from the impact
investing community—the social impact bond, or SIB. The SIB model of CED ostensibly finds a middle ground by leveraging funding from private impact investors to finance social welfare programs within marginalized communities. SIBs seemingly answer the call of local government law scholars of the New Regionalists movement who advocate for governmental mechanisms that facilitate regional cooperation, address equity concerns, and respect local government autonomy. However, this Article argues that the SIB model of impact investing will struggle to advance metropolitan equity due to its grounding in the politics of neoliberalism.

After highlighting limitations of the SIB, this Article links contemporary debates about CED theory to historical contestations within the black community about economically-oriented racial uplift strategies. Placing historical figures, such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, in conversation with more contemporary theorists of political philosophy, this Article offers an alternative conceptual framework of CED. Termed justice-based CED, this framing distinguishes a typology of social change that places democracy at the epicenter of the development debate and points toward the political principles of the solidarity economy as guideposts for law reform. The justice-based approach rests upon three core values: social solidarity, economic democracy, and solidarity economy. Taken together, this perspective reflects a vision of political morality that embodies one of America’s most foundational democratic values—human moral dignity.

How can society organize itself democratically to achieve human freedom, environmental sustainability, justice, prosperity, equality, and solidarity? Beyond Capitalism introduces various ideas that have been suggested as answers to... more

Chapters 3 and 8 in 'Democratic Wealth', a collection of essays that challenges the poverty of ideas following the 2007 financial crash and explores in an open-minded and creative fashion what resources we have for a renewal of economic... more

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- by Joe Guinan
- •
- 3
  Political Economy, Political Theory, Economic Democracy

The theory of the firm initially developed by Ronald Coase has made explicit the political nature of firms by putting hierarchy at the heart of the economic process. Theories of workplace democracy articulate this intuition in the... more

I argue here for a conception of workers' councils that are embedded within the architecture of the modern state and parliamentary government as opposed to anti-statist and romantic conceptions of workers' councils. I defend the idea of... more

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- by Michael J. Thompson
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- 19
  Political Theory, Marxism, Democratic Theory, Republicanism

This essay delves into the intricate topic of economic democracy in the ancient and contemporary world. To begin with, it delineates an in- creasingly widening gap between the rich and the poor in contemporary neoliberal South Korean... more

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- by Patrick S. O'Donnell
- •
- 7
  Marxism, Working Classes, Socialism, Labor unions

This study examines the potential for a stronger and more significant worker co-operative sector in Saskatchewan and probes some of the development barriers which prevent it. These barriers to democratic, worker-led enterprise include... more

This study examines the potential for a stronger and more significant worker co-operative sector in Saskatchewan and probes some of the development barriers which prevent it. These barriers to democratic, worker-led enterprise include systemic problems—structurally rooted in the political economy of investor-led development— and contextual problems—specific to the province’s evolving economic, social, cultural, and political development.

To address the systemic problems, the analysis builds on a review of the comparative literature, much of it generated in the context of the eighties worker co-operative boom. These findings on enabling practices and policies from other regions focus on problems of finance, management, work-culture, expansion-barriers, and collective entrepreneurship. In these areas, the potential for adopting effective innovations from elsewhere is considerable.

To address the contextual factors more specific to Saskatchewan, the study focuses on issues of demographics, labour market structure, movement culture, and provincial partnerships. In these areas, more endogenous solutions are required. These include the need to (re-)involve provincial sector, state, and extended social movement families in building new development coalitions to drive new co-operative campaigns.

This bi-focal approach provides the basis for the analysis and recommendations which follow. However, while the study is structured around the promise and problems faced by worker co-operatives, this model is part of a wider family of worker-inclusive co-operative enterprises. Indeed, the worker co-operative has acted as a “wedge sector,” driving wider forms of multi-stakeholding such as worker-shareholder or solidarity co-operatives. This report finds that investments in worker co-operative development also drive the development of a wider new sector of adaptive models that also include workers in governance, although not exclusively. Building a strong worker co-operative sector can help open the door to other new models, thus further building overall movement diversity and its potential to regenerate and expand.

Indeed, worker co-operative development needs to be understood as part of the New Social Economy response to the new needs and structural dislocations associated with globalization. A clearer understanding of this model’s potential and problems thus also provides important insights into wider problems and potentials for emerging forms of entrepreneurial diversity. This includes common transition problems facing other emerging co-operative sectors, social enterprises, and forms of employee ownership.

This paper defends the idea that the only feasible and desirable alternative to bourgeois democracy in 1918 Germany was a parliamentary democracy supported by workers’ councils. This alternative, which I will call council Erfurtianism,... more

In the paper, the author clarifies the relationship between both the trade unions and forms of employee participation, respectively. He explains their particularities, features and meaning. He also presents them as a channel for... more

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- by Hannes Kuch
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- 11
  Critical Theory, Marxism, Jurgen Habermas, Hegel

The outline of this paper is to demonstrate the notion that the Constitution should be considered as an economic document. This means that most of the rights were derived by economic interests and incentives. The distribution of power was... more

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- by Shahram Arshadnejad
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- 4
  American Politics, Politics, Democracy, Economic Democracy

In the paper, three European concepts of employee participation are presented: German codetermination, Basque Mondragón Cooperative, and European Works Councils. Their historical development, fundamental features and functioning... more

Andrei Shleifer and Robert W. Vishny (1994) have used Public Choice analysis to criticize market socialism. Peter J. Boettke (1995) and Peter T. Leeson and Boettke (2002) have argued that F. A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom (2007 [1944])... more

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- by Michael Makovi
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- 21
  Totalitarianism, Public Choice, Hayek, Democratic Socialism

In this article, we present an anti-capitalist argument for basic income based on its predicted effects on the wage share dynamics and its relation with the working class' bargaining power. Our considerations are located in the Marxist... more

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- by Maciej Szlinder
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- 17
  Marxism, Marxist Economics, Basic Income, Marxist theory

In recent years, radical movements from the Arab Spring to Occupy and beyond have been calling for “democracy.” These movements also claim to reject representation—a keystone of many contemporary liberal understandings of democracy. How... more

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- by Paul Raekstad
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- 33
  Social Movements, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Marxism

In the 2012 Korean presidential election, both liberal and conservative parties fought their campaigns on the slogan of “economic democratization,” marking a strong departure from past presidential elections and the growth-first policies... more

The movement for workers’ control in the 1970s was among the most promising of the many roads not taken in the forgotten history of the left

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- by Joe Guinan
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- 4
  Socialism, Economic Democracy, Workers Self-Management, Workers Control

After a year of chaos and turmoil related to the Covid-19 pandemic and its social, economic, and political effects, we find ourselves faced with the question of what comes next. Down one path lies the notion of returning to business as... more

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Der Aufbau Solidarischer Ökonomien ist für eine sozial-ökologische Transformation wesentlich. Jedoch steht die vorherrschende neoklassische Wirtschaftstheorie einem adäquaten Verständnis Solidarischer Ökonomien entgegen.... more

This article examines G.D.H. Cole's international thought. It focuses on Cole's treatment of the state as well as his contributions to the tradition of international functionalism. It argues that Cole's thought is unique in its unorthodox... more

This paper examines the General Seminar on "Political and Economic Democracy" of the Graduate Faculty for Political and Social Science at the New School for Social Research in 1937. The predominantly German émigré academics who... more

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- by Nicholas Mulder
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- 6
  Intellectual History, Exile, New Deal (U.S. history), Weimar Republic

This article examines the emergence of a grass-root movement that brings back the past in order to prefigure communalist practices in the Basque Country. The movement comprises both the platform of Biltzarre and the Basque Cultural... more

Nel 2019 ricorrono due importanti anniversari tondi che i tedeschi stanno celebrando con una certa enfasi: cento anni fa veniva promulgata la Costituzione di Weimar, la prima in Europa a parlare di diritti sociali e di democrazia... more

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- by Alessandro Somma
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- 9
  Democracy, New Left, Germany, Economic Democracy

Un tentativo di rintracciare le radici dei beni comuni nelle teorie e pratiche tedesche che tra Otto e Novecento hanno sviluppato il tema della socializzazione dei beni produttivi.

Milton Friedman (1962) is associated with the claim that political and economic freedom cannot be distinguished (cf. Lawson and Clark 2010), using the famous example that there can be no freedom of speech where the government owns the... more

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- by Michael Makovi
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- 30
  Slavery, Totalitarianism, George Orwell, Public Choice

On the one hand, the world cooperative movement's democratic structures have created unprecedented opportunities for knowledge sharing. On the other hand, bureaucratization has taken its toll on movement vitality.

Review Article discussing Alan Thomas' "Republic of Equals". Alan Thomas’ Republic of Equals: Predistribution and Property-Owning Democracy sets itselfthe ambitious task of synthesising neo-republican political theory and Rawlsian... more

Europe is experiencing rapidly accelerating poverty and social exclusion, following half a decade of financial crisis and austerity politics. The key problem behind Europe’s malaise, in our view, is the economic disenfranchisement of... more

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- by Jurgen De Wispelaere
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- 6
  Critical Theory, Social Theory, Republicanism, Basic Income

In the paper, the author elucidates the fundamental characteristics of the economic democracy. Therefore, the concept is also introduced through its historical development beginning in the 18th century up to present day. Particular space... more

Economic Democracy

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